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Producing or filming a play involves making a whole lot of choices – not just about about “obvious” things such as casting, costumes, set design, lighting, music, and so on. Many of the choices are text-related, such as how to interpret and deliver the dialogue, what bits of stage business or action can add to the story, what can be conveyed visually or otherwise in the chosen medium, whether to fill in perceived gaps or explore the beginnings or endings of certain storylines, etc, etc, etc.

It is intriguing to consider this work in relation to Shakespeare’s plays, for many reasons. The texts we have include very few stage directions, for example, and important story or character points are often made in language that modern ears don’t find straightforward to interpret.

Each production (I hope!) will do something original or interesting in terms of interpretation or stage business. For example, a production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe (Emma Rice, 2017), which was set in the 1970s, explained Feste’s pre-play absence from Olivia’s household by casting him as the performer on the (doomed!) cruise ship bearing Viola and Sebastian. I thought that was an interesting idea, and while I’m sure those ends (well, beginnings) have been tied up before, it was new to me.

Other choices are repeated from production to production until they become so familiar that it’s hard to remember they’re not part of the original text. This was brought home to me while watching a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night at The Young Vic (Kwame Kwei Armah and Oskar Eustic, 2018).

Act 5, Scene I

The long last scene of the original play ends with Feste singing the five philosophical verses of “The rain it raineth every day”. During this song, productions often tie up various storylines or indicate what is happening or will happen to various characters. Much of this relies on interpretations of or extrapolations from the play – for there are no stage directions to follow other than “Exeunt all, except Clown”. Shakespeare’s intention seems to be that all the other characters simply exit the stage and leave Feste alone to deliver his song. However, modern productions are often keen to fill in this airtime with further action!

The last scene itself takes care of a lot of business. Briefly:

Feste arrives, bringing the letter from Malvolio, who is still confined in darkness

Officers bring the arrested Antonio to Orsino, and they recognise each other as enemies

Viola (as Cesario) explains that Antonio protected her in a fight, but she’s not sure why

Antonio claims to have been friends with Cesario for the past three months, and protests at the denials

Olivia arrives and refuses Orsino’s offered devotion yet again

Olivia claims to have married Cesario that morning, and protests at the denials

Orsino feels betrayed by Cesario (as well as disappointed in Olivia)

Sir Andrew and Sir Toby arrive with broken heads, thanks to a fight with Cesario, and protest at the denials

Sir Andrew and Sir Toby exit to seek medical attention

Sebastian arrives, apologising to his new wife Olivia for fighting with her kinsman Toby

Everyone is astonished to realise there are two Cesarios

Sebastian and Viola recognise each other as the twin they thought drowned; despite asserting her true identity, Viola remains dressed as Cesario for now

Sebastian and Olivia confirm they’re happy to remain married

Orsino proposes to Viola (and is accepted)

Olivia asks after Malvolio, and has Fabian read out Malvolio’s letter; he seems sane, with a genuine grievance, so she sends for him

Malvolio arrives and pleads his case, showing Olivia the “yellow stockings” letter she’d supposedly written to him; Olivia recognises the handwriting as Maria’s

Fabian confesses that he, Toby and Maria maliciously tricked Malvolio with the letter, and claims there were injuries on both sides; he reports that Toby has married Maria as recompense for involving her in the scheme

Feste confesses his later part in the scheme, but reminds Malvolio of the hurtful things Malvolio has said

Malvolio vows revenge on them all, and exits

Orsino sends someone (Fabian? Curio? his Lords?) after Malvolio to seek peace, and ends with sweet words to Olivia and to Cesario / Viola

“Exeunt all, except Clown”

Feste sings

Most of the dramatis personae are on stage for some or all of this scene: Feste, Fabian, Orsino, Viola, Curio and Orsino’s other Lords, Antonio, Officers, Olivia, Olivia’s Attendants, Priest, Sir Andrew, Sir Toby, Sebastian, and Malvolio.

What happens next?

The first page of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, printed in the First Folio of 1623 (source: Wikimedia Commons).

You’d be forgiven for thinking that was enough to conclude the play, wouldn’t you? But, no – as mentioned above, there has been more business done during Feste’s song in all the stage and film versions I have seen. Most of these extra bits are so common across all the productions that I had fallen into the trap of thinking they were part of the play itself.

We often see Toby and Maria together, with some indication in their attitudes of whether their marriage will be happy or troubled. Note that we didn’t see Maria at all in the final scene, and we only see Toby briefly with his broken head. Fabian is the one who reports their marriage, some while after Toby has exited.

We often see Sir Andrew walking off alone, having failed at wooing Olivia. Note that we last saw Andrew in the play when he exited with Toby to go have his head wound fixed.

Likewise, we often see Antonio walking off alone, having lost Sebastian to wedded bliss with Olivia. This despite the fact that Sebastian has greeted “my dear Antonio” very enthusiastically in the last scene; it doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume Sebastian would offer Antonio a place in his and Olivia’s household? (Though Antonio may decide to refuse it, I hope he wouldn’t.)

Interestingly, I can’t remember ever seeing another bit of business that is actually suggested by the text: the Duke’s men catching up with Malvolio and “entreating him to a peace”. Whether they’d be successful or not is another matter entirely!

“For the rain it raineth every day”

Miltos Yerolemou as Feste in the RSC production, 2009. Photo by Robbie Jack.

Twelfth Night is considered a comedy, and it features strong elements of romance and humour. However, it also includes darker matter, such as Toby’s cynical exploitation of the well-off Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and the cruel tricks played on Malvolio which lead to him being locked up as mad.

Feste’s last song ends the play on a melancholy note – or bittersweet at best. Despite the happy endings in the play, as the love triangle resolves into two committed couples, Feste reminds us that they will still have to contend with the wind and the rain, “symbols of life’s hardships”. On top of which, the concluding lines imply that “in the grand scheme of things, one man’s woes don’t matter”. [Quotes from an article on Interesting Literature, 7 October 2018.]

I guess it’s hardly surprising that most productions take their cue from this song, and wind up various bits of business in ambivalent ways. In the BBC TV film (John Gorrie, 1980), Maria and Toby are seen walking past in the background, looking smugly pleased with themselves. In an RSC stage production (Gregory Doran, 2009), Maria strides off, happy but haughty, while Toby stumbles abjectly after her. In the BBC film, we don’t see Sir Andrew again, but we do see Antonio sitting abandoned there in Olivia’s garden, before he finally turns and walks away.

“What a better world it could be!”

The Young Vic’s musical adaptation, written by Shaina Taub (and originally performed in New York), takes a far more optimistic view of things. The production’s theme is community – as evidenced by the fact that, while the named roles were played by professional actors, the smaller roles and the chorus were filled by local members of the public. It all helped make for a lively and colourful show.

Instead of Feste’s melancholy tune, we end with “Eyes of Another”, a song joyfully recommending that we open our hearts and practice empathy for each other.

I had no clue, I had no clue what you go through
I just assumed, but I assumed things that ain’t true
But I feel where you’re coming from
Cause now I been there too

And I see through the eyes of another
Hear through the ears of somebody else
If we’d open our hearts to each other’s beat
What a better world it could be

All the characters are on stage to perform this finale, led by Feste. The community reintegrates, reshaping itself around the newly formed couples. Andrew is still there as part of the whole, and even Malvolio finds that he can’t help but join in the singing.

In a beautiful gesture, Orsino shakes hands with Antonio, sharing forgiveness and welcoming him to Illyria. After all, Orsino knows about the mad things one can do, the risks one will run, for the sake of an unrequited love. “So remind me to be kinder,” Orsino sings to Antonio, “cause now I’ve been there too.”

It was this gesture that brought home to me the fact that these last bits of business are completely open to the director’s interpretation. Why shouldn’t Orsino – who has now learned from and grown beyond his obsession with Olivia, and empathised with Cesario’s “sister” over unrequited love – be magnanimous to Antonio? Even in a production that takes the more bittersweet road, that would be entirely plausible.

This production included the whole story of Twelfth Night while emphasising a more positive outcome. Malvolio was pranked and confined – but he survives the experiences with head held high because he is indeed full of self-love. For better or worse, it gives him the confidence to remain himself while also joining in the community’s song.

I’m not sure whether Malvolio – or Toby, Maria and Fabian – really learned the lesson to see through the eyes of another. However, they remain part of the community, this inclusive community, and perhaps they’ll learn in time to be less selfish members of it, or perhaps not – but in the meantime they are accepted for who they are.

And that’s a pretty damned powerful message for today.

The finale of the original production in New York of Shaina Taub’s musical adaptation, 2016. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Oops! I almost forgot to add the Shameless Self Promotion! If you are, like me, interested in Feste and in Twelfth Night, you may like to read my story “In a Dark House”. (Which, for some reason, I always type as Horse. Oh well, never mind.) This story follows Feste after the play, and indeed suggests one reason for his pre-play absence from Olivia’s household, that doesn’t involve cruise ships. You can find the story in the marvellous anthology No Holds Bard from Manifold Press.

I haven’t been around much lately, in either the virtual or the ‘real’ worlds. It has started to feel as if I should make the effort to reconnect … and yet I’m so utterly miserable! And I tend not to share my unhappinesses. There’s too much of that in the world already, and no one benefits from more, especially when it comes from someone with only the most privileged of ‘first world problems’.

But I thought maybe if I let myself be a misery-guts and slough some of that skin, and then try to balance it out with some gratitude, that might work … ? For me, at least, and humble apologies to the rest of you! Just ignore or not, as you see fit.

You’re probably aware that Mr B and I are moving back to Australia – oh, in just over two weeks now. I’ll be leaving my heart behind in England, but whoever needed one of those, eh? {heavy attempt at humour falls flat} Of course an international move, the discarding or packing of belongings, and the buying and selling of real estate, involves a whole lot of organising – and I never seem to realise how many places there are in a house that need cleaning, until I’m about to hand it over to new owners.

So, busy busy busy. Dusty grimy mouldy, and how the hell did that get in there?

The next problem being that I managed to fall to the floor while cleaning the top of the refrigerator, scraping my back on a table corner on the way down. (IKR!) And then after the couple of shaky days that caused me, I came down with a monster cold. Like, really the worst. What with that and this relentlessly hot weather, I’m behind on everything.

You probably already know I hate hot weather, and buildings in the UK are designed to cope with cold weather rather than hot, so it’s extra unbearable.

All of that meant I’ve had to cancel parts of my UK Farewell Tour. I am sure there are a couple of friends (well, three, to be specific) who haven’t forgiven me for not catching up with them before I leave. But I am fast running out of time. I cancelled going to Euro Pride Con in Amsterdam this weekend, which is crazy, but I just wouldn’t have coped.

In addition to the above, there are no doubt other people who don’t appreciate me being so vocal about my reluctance to move back to Oz. I feel bad about that, but then again it’s a huge thing for me, and I am not usually one to complain, so maybe I get to have a grumble just this once … ?

And I’m too unsettled to write much. I’m never entirely happy if I’m not writing.

Righty-oh! I think that’s about it on the negative side! Let’s see if we can’t swing the balance back the other way by at least an equivalent amount …

I am grateful for: the new owners of our home here in the UK. It’s a flat in Reading, Berkshire, that we moved into new-built over thirteen years ago. I’ve loved being here. And the awesome thing is that the new owners seem to have fallen in love with the place, too. They are a young couple, of Indian heritage, and this will be their first home together. Because they are living with his family at present, and there’s no chain of sales to be made, the whole process has been very flexible in terms of sorting out the timing to suit ourselves, and so on. Plus, you know, the light in their eyes as they got all excited about their new home … And I have an interest in and passion for India, if that’s not too crass a thing to say, so they had me at hello. All up, definitely something to be happy about!

I am grateful for: buying new bed linen! Honestly, it’s just as much fun as buying new crockery. This is a ‘first world happiness’ to set against my ‘first world grumbles’. We’ve ended up living in the UK for almost three times longer than we’d planned, but it was always meant to be a temporary thing. So the idea was that we’d bring our old crockery and bed linen with us, and then discard it before going back, and finally get to buy some new stuff once we’re resettled in Oz. Well, we had a bit of extra dosh to spend, thanks to Bruce’s retirement bonus, and John Lewis were having a clearance sale – and I’m now the proud owner of some truly beautiful new bed linen! Hurrah!

I am grateful for: winter in Australia! In just over two weeks, I’ll be living somewhere where it’s currently winter. Not that it will be cold, but oh my word that is definitely a silver lining in my hot little cloud right now.

And while I’m in that mental space, I am grateful for: Australian-built houses! Designed to deal with hot weather, and keep the occupants cool. Bring it on!

Most of all, though, I am grateful for: my sister Bryn! She’s my best mate, and my stalwart writerly companion, and soon I’ll be living within a few minutes of her. Huzzah!

Meanwhile, I am grateful for: my Keats Locations website! It’s Sunday today, and I was so fed up that I took the day off from cleaning and organising. Instead, I updated my Keats Locations website with entries on Edmonton and Enfield, London. Honestly, I visited these locations back in November last year, and hadn’t written them up yet. Which was especially sad as this website was meant to be my Farewell UK Project, and due to all the above botherations I haven’t visited as many locations as I’d have liked. Well, I’ll just have to continue the project long distance, and plan my future holidays accordingly!

I am grateful for: Smashwords. I enjoy working with them in their role of distributors, but I really love participating in their site-wide sales. This isn’t intended as a sales pitch, but only a celebration. They make it so easy for us authors and publishers to offer discounts, and for us readers to take full advantage of those discounts to fill our TBR lists. Whether it’s summer or winter, there’s always the need for a good book or two or twenty. Keep up the good work, team!

I am grateful for: Merlin fandom. This BBC show and the resulting “Merlin Family” of fans have been an intrinsic and wonderful part of my time in the UK. I’ve made some great friends, visited some beautiful places thanks to the Merlin Locations project, and continue to happily potter away with various fan fiction and icon fests. If other writerly projects are uncooperative, it’s never difficult to have a bit of creative fun with Merlin instead.

I’m very proud to be the Featured Guest Author today on the Sinfully Gay Romance Book Reviews blog! Please do drop by. I am talking about Writing What I Know – and we’re also hosting a giveaway for ten people to each win one of my books.

If you’d like to read Mark’s 4.5 star review of my latest novel The ‘True Love’ Solution, you can also find that on the Sinfully blog!

Thank you to Mark and Monique and all at Sinfully for being such a vibrant part of our community and genre. ♥

I know I’m rather late to the party, but it was Asexual Awareness Week from 26 October to 1 November this year. I only found out rather belatedly – and I have to say it left me a bit flummoxed about how to best mark the occasion. Because the new book I was releasing on 1 November (y’all know its title by now) has an asexual character, and I was a bit wary about being all “Yay! Party! Party! Have some cake! Here, buy my book.”

Now that a discreet week has gone by, though, I thought I might post with a clear conscience.

Asexuality has been around for as long as there has been human beans, of course, but it’s only relatively recently been a subject much discussed in public forums. Back in the 1940s Kinsey recognised that some people didn’t fit on his ‘scale’ of sexual orientation from 0-6 (from heterosexual to homosexual). He dubbed them category ‘X’, which he defined as individuals with “no socio-sexual contacts or reactions”. This included 1.5% of the adult male population.

Other research has also indicated that perhaps asexual individuals make up about 1% of the overall population. However, there is also cause to wonder if the figures aren’t under-reported, and proper research studies have been few and far between over the decades. I wouldn’t be surprised if the figures turn out to be more like 5% or 10% of the population, for asexuality would have to be one of the most invisible and overlooked letters in the glorious GLBTQIA quiltbag.

Wikipedia defines asexuality as “the lack of sexual attraction to anyone, or low or absent interest in sexual activity”. It is not abstinence or celibacy, which are chosen behaviours. Instead, it is an ‘enduring’ and intrinsic part of a person that is generally considered as another sexual orientation (along with heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality).

As with many aspects of humanity, there are infinite variations within the overall identity. Some asexuals feel sexual attraction even if they don’t care to act on it, and others don’t. Some feel romantic attraction, and others don’t. Some enjoy physical affection, and others don’t. Some masturbate, and others don’t. Some may feel romantic and sexual attraction in the right, very rare circumstances, and others won’t.

One of the only common threads I’ve picked up in reading or listening to the stories of people who identify as asexual, is that it often took them a long while – years or even decades – to realise who they were and to find a name for it. Asexuality really has been such an invisible thing – or perhaps such a quiet thing, and so drowned out by our culture’s insistent interest in sex and relationships, and the related assumptions about who people ‘really are’.

Of course even when an individual manages to identify themselves correctly, they still may face a harrowing ‘coming out’ process. If it has taken an asexual a long time to understand their own self, how long will it take the people around them to understand, when they don’t have that same interior knowledge or vested interest? I should think that sexual people generally will find it hardest of all to understand or empathise with asexuality, as our sexual nature is seen as so ‘ingrained’. It might be far easier to understand other sexual beings, even when their sexuality is oriented differently to one’s own. I imagine the response being, ‘Well, at least they’re into sex, you know!’

I was invited by the marvellous Feliz Faber to take part in the Fabulous Five Author Blog Hop. The idea is that we answer a specific set of questions and then tag five more authors to do the same, and so hopefully introduce readers to new authors and their work.

1. What am I working on?

I’m in between writing projects at the moment. I’ve recently finished the third Butterfly Hunter novel, titled The Thousand Smiles of Nicholas Goring, and that’s due for release on 1 November. I’m editing the Manifold Press ‘Great War’ anthology titled A Pride of Poppies – for which I’ve written two stories. And I think I am now gearing myself up to write a novel about Byron … though I am having rather an attack of nerves about that, so I may distract myself with something less daunting for a while.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

This is an interesting question, and to be honest I feel a little wary about answering. But I suppose comparisons are only odious if value judgements are attached – and in this case they are not – so I’ll leap in.

I guess there’s two things I could talk about here. One is that I like to write about characters who are relatively mature – not necessarily in years, but in their thoughts, feelings and behaviour. I suppose I like my heroes to be emotionally intelligent. They find a balance between short term and long term gratification; they don’t give or take hurt unnecessarily; they will do their best to work things out. They want that Big Romantic Stuff in their lives (as Bob Geldof once so memorably dubbed it), but they know they’re in relationships with fellow human beings who are intrinsically both amazing and flawed. The rewards are there but they need to be worked for.

I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect not only on how far we have yet to go, but also on how far we’ve already come. We’re not there yet, that’s for sure – but then we’re a lot closer than we were in, say, 1978. It gives me hope for the future, to think about the progress we’ve made already.

Any Day Now

Why 1978…? I’ve recently watched a film by Travis Fine titled Any Day Now (2012) which is set then. It tells the story of Rudy and Paul, a gay couple who take in teenager Marco when his mother abandons him, and come to love him, but must then fight the legal system in order to keep custody. Of course, given the time in which the story is set, the system is against them, and ultimately this leads to tragedy.

One of the most moving scenes is in a courtroom when Paul really lays it all on the line. Marco is a challenge, he can’t deny that, and no one else wants to take him on, but Paul and Rudy love him as their own. ‘They made him a promise,’ runs one of the film’s taglines. ‘He made them a family.’ Despite her sympathy, and her faith in the love shared by this family-by-choice, the judge still rules against them – declaring that Marco is in danger of learning that the gay couple’s love is ‘normal’.

It’s all too horribly realistic. Thank heavens we’ve moved on from there – at least in certain parts of the world, where same-sex marriage now not only brings with it the acceptance that love is love, but also brings a share in the rights and responsibilities that come with creating families.

If I took one thing away with me from attending the London Author Fair, it was a renewed enthusiasm for our male-male romance genre and the many opportunities it provides. I wrote up a giddy post about it, which you can find at the UK Gay Romance site.

Three cheers for independent publishing! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!

update: And for a different perspective, there’s this report on a Publishers Weekly webcast!

The London Author Fair was organised by Authoright, who provide support and services to authors while publishing – especially those who are self-publishing. The Fair was held at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden; a building with an old façade and super-modern facilities.

This event was the first of its kind, with another planned for New York in the autumn. I’m sure there’ll be lessons learned from this one, but on the whole I feel it was successful and very interesting. Apparently there were about 250 people attending, and it was a sell-out.

First things first

There was free coffee awaiting me, along with a free croissant and even a free coffee mug, courtesy of Blurb. Thank you very kindly for that! I got there a bit early, but the place was already starting to buzz.

The LAF program involved a series of seminars featuring three, four or five panel members in a large hall. The seminars were filmed and will be made available online.

There were also three streams of workshops, run by one or two people. I think the workshops proved to be more popular than Authoright had planned; leastwise, they were overfull for the space provided, and (even worse) were sharing rooms with the other workshops and general happenings, so it could be very difficult to really hear and understand what was going on. Still, lessons learned! A separate room for each workshop stream, with enough space and furniture for the audience, will surely be seen as desirable.

Workshop: Discoverability for Authors

The first workshop I attended was run by Patrick Brown, Director of Author Marketing at Goodreads. By the end of the day I’d decided he was my favourite of all the myriad presenters: personable, warm, funny, and thoughtful.

My friend and fellow author Chris Quinton tagged me on Facebook with the meme asking me to list ten books that have stayed with me. “Don’t take more than a few minutes,” the meme advises. “Don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be great works, or even your favourites. Just the ones that have touched you.”

I duly did so, and given that the New Year always puts one in a contemplative state of mind, it seemed like a good idea to ponder my choices here.

I listed the books ‘in no particular order’ – but I’ll stick with it nevertheless, as perhaps it’s inevitable that even a ‘random’ order can never be entirely random.

1. The Once and Future King by TH White

The Arthurian legends are fundamental to me, as to so many of us, and this was my first key text. I always adored Arthur. These five novels tell Arthur’s story from his childhood to the night before his death, and the style of them grows and changes as he does.

The particular strengths for me were the complex characterisations of Arthur and Lancelot, and the fair-minded and mature approach to the enduring love and friendship between Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere. They found themselves in an impossible situation, and they did their very very best to make it work for their own sakes and for the kingdom, but ultimately they were betrayed. Fascinatingly, this is a tragedy brought about by the hero’s best qualities rather than by his flaws.

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